Radiator Woes....

[Alchemist]

Hi Guys,

Well after leaving my car in a carpark for 3 days I came back to my baby to find it "bleeding" so to speak, there was a small puddle of red coolant coming from under my car. Anyway checked levels of coolant, rad was still full, overflow tank was empty, but I'm really not sure how much was in there anyway....

So drove to GF's(15Km's away) left car overnight, came back in the morning, again small puddle of coolant.

Back to work again, same story.

Drove home very sheepishly and put a container underneath the car to try to guage how much coolant I'm loosing, looks like 20 mL's or so every 12 hours, so not very much, but my car shouldn't be leaking coolant, so I investigated....

Car is running at normal temps, sitting just a little below half way on the temp guage, drove home in peak hour traffic today and it didn't rise at all.

Engine has been doing some wierd things lately, but I think I have that tied down to an electrical issue....but maybe they are related.

I traced the leak to a drainage hose at the bottom of the radiator that has plug just above it, I don't have a trolley jack so I threw my digicam under the car and found this little tap, that appeared to be on, but if this tap was on, wouldn't there be no coolant left in my car?

So.....has anyone had a problem with these taps before? Does this sound like maybe the rubber inside has perished and it's leaking, or would there be another problem of higher than normal rad temps with higher pressure forcing the water out?

But, this leaks even when the engine is stone cold, so I'm thinking not.

Dong has suggested clutch fan not working, so overheating and high pressure, but clutch fan works OK.

Here are some pics of the tap. Is this the type of tap that is a half turn on, half turn off, or something I would have to unscrew to fully open up?




I'm going to find all this out tomorrow when I have a play with it, but thought I may as well go in with some info as I'm not too keen on covering my driveway with coolant.

Any help/suggestions appreciated

[Draven]

having undone this just yesterday, I can tell you it's one that you have to fully unscrew to open properly.

[Alchemist]

Thanks mate Any rubber washers to perish away or just a tap?

[mrshin]

It's basically a tapered plastic screw with an O-ring on the end of it. Pull it out and have a look at it.

[Alchemist]

I'm not too keen on the amount of coolant that would follow I guess if I blocked the end of that tubing I'd be OK though.

[oldcorollas]

get a couple of ice-cream containers

if you pull the stopcock thing out... it will piss coolant down thru tube.. and also sideways, out the back

drain coolant, replace o-ring etc, do back up....

or check it is tight now? not likely to come loose but you never know....

is a nifty way to stuff someones car tho

[Draven]

you're not due for a coolant change sometime soon? all you really need is ~5L of ice cream containers and a bit of patience to drain it and replace the o-ring. a bit of plumbers tape never goes astray in such applications either.

[Vios-GT_07]

could be you've screwed it in out of line and the threads are rooted.. ??

hm... i'd agree to just take it out, new o-ring and (/ or) plumbers tape and screw it back in... u could use your thumb to stop coolant from coming out for a while wouldn't suggest collecting the fluid and recycling it, it's a supra so get new stuff!!

i use filtered water + genuine coolant if i was you

[oldcorollas]

plumbers tape will make no difference if the o-ring is the sealing surface... btw....

saddens me to see people using plumbers gas tape on a hydrogen bottle reg when it has a metal-metal seal

[Enchanter]

Exactly the same thing happened to my ma61 the other week, I found a green puddle and thought oh crap. It turned out to be the same tap you have found on yours was simply not tight.

No more green puddles now

[Draven]

and did you immediately swap the green for red? (you heathen?)

[Enchanter]

and did you immediately swap the green for red? (you heathen?)

he he, I half expected that

The boat anchor will be replaced by a 2jzge soon so I will then be going red.

[JustCallMeOrlando]

Mine did this exact same thing after BHG, as if I needed any more problems. I salvaged one of the near new o-rings off one of my old 295cc Gen2 injectors and screwed her back up again. Bewdiful.

[Alchemist]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'm not due for a coolant change soon as it was done about 5000Km's ago, but hasn't been leaking since then, I might try a tightening of it tonight and see.

Failling that will take drastic action on the weekend as I have 4L of red coolant lying around at home anyway as the 2JZ-GE takes 7L of coolant, I bought 8L originally, then found out you only need a 50-50 mix so have 4L spare.

[JustCallMeOrlando]

I'd only just replaced my coolant due to the BHG. I took the approach of draining the fresh coolant into 4l distilled water bottles I had handy.